Trump Explains Why Secret Service Returned Him To White House After Assassination Attempt

President Donald Trump explained to “The Sunday Briefing” co-host Jacqui Heinrich why the Secret Service insisted he return to the White House after a gunman allegedly targeting his administration was thwarted Saturday night.

Trump initially declared in a Truth Social post that he intended to return to the stage and that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner would continue despite the shooting, before making a second post 19 minutes later announcing that he was returning to the White House after law enforcement agencies asked him to leave “consistent with protocol.” Trump explained the rationale behind the decision to Fox News’ Heinrich, who is on the board of the White House Correspondents’ Association, the group that hosted the event where the incident took place.

“I was taken by your response immediately after it happened. You said we’re going to continue the night, we’re not going to let this person derail our plans for the evening,” Heinrich, who appeared on stage with Trump during the dinner, told Trump over the phone. “Had you been told very quickly that there was no additional threat in the room? Is that why you felt comfortable proceeding if Secret Service allowed that to happen?”

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“Well, I hated a guy like this, sick, bad person. I hated somebody like that changing the course of our country … where you’d have all of these people, important people, not important people, all of these people gathered, record crowd … but that all of these people would have to leave. It’s just for what? For one nut? For one guy?” Trump responded. “That is really, I mean, look … he’s a very disturbed person, so I really wanted to go and I really wanted to, but the protocol was no.”